To the Sea
by Jimli
Summary: Psyche has always been drawn to the ocean and that lonely beach was the perfect place to enjoy it. The merman she meets there, Llyr, was looking for respite from his duties. Their chemistry was instant, but everyone has a greater place in the world, and it isn't always where the heart wants to be. They both know the stories end badly, especially when he has to return to the sea...
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: **__This is a fairy tale somewhat based on mermaid and selkie legends, although not derived from any one specfic story. Let me know what you think, good, bad, or indifferent. I really mean that, too. I'm not intimidated by trolls or flames, and I'm always looking out for anything I need to improve. Although gratuitous praise is always welcome. XD_

_No need for a disclaimer, despite how much fun I try to have in writing them._

_Jimli ;P_

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**Chapter 1**

It started on the beach. She loved the beach. The smell of the water, the sounds of the waves not just crashing, but also the soft whisper as they slid over the sand, the feel of the sand, warm and wet, soft and squishy. The fact that she couldn't swim didn't matter. It was the ocean that drew her, not water.

This part of the beach was little visited by most; the ferocious riptides kept swimmers and surfers away, and the inaccessibility of the nook made it less-than-desirable for the party crowd. Why struggle down harsh slopes or around large rock features for a tiny slice of beach, no matter how private?

She sat at the very edge of the incoming tide, letting the water lap at her with every wave. This was wonderful, a little slice of heaven, especially with no one else around.

A shape briefly breached the surface of the water, garnering her attention. She frowned. There couldn't really be anyone foolish enough to swim that part of the water, not with the riptides. She stood, wading into the tide, looking for whatever she'd seen. Thigh deep in the water, she dared not go farther when a voice startled her.

"Looking for something?" It was a male voice, a soft baritone as smooth as wet sand. She jerked, turning towards the source of the voice at her right. A handsome man was smiling up at her. She cocked her head curiously. She was standing in about two feet of water, give or take, so with as much of him as there had to be submerged, he must be lounging, for lack of a better term.

"Were you swimming out there?" she asked, feeling a little foolish. He laughed.

"Sure. I swim out there every day," he answered, a mischievous look in his blue eyes. Nonplussed, she stood quietly for a moment. The next wave splashed over her, throwing her off balance. She tumbled, landing under the water's surface. She panicked, all-too aware of her lack of swimming ability; she scrambled to get purchase on the sand behind her to crawl back to land-proper. An arm came around her waist, cinching her body to…_something_. The water flowed back from around her, and she abruptly broke the surface, somehow further up the beach. A warm laugh next to her caught her attention.

"Say, can't you swim? That wasn't even very deep, you know."

"No. Thank you for pulling me to shore." She frowned. "How'd you do that anyway? Lying down like you were, you can't have had much leverage…."

He laughed again. "Leverage? I just rode the wave; a little flip will take you a long ways, especially with my tail."

She blinked at his face, then let her gaze wander downward. "Are you one of those mermaiders?"

It was his turn to be confused. "Mermaider? Is that what you call neptunes?"

She pulled away from his grip and scuttled a little ways from him, trying to take stock of the situation. He looked normal enough, except for the fishy tail starting at his waist. She frowned. No, actually, he didn't look exactly normal.

His skin had a faint blue-green tint to it, as did his hair. His eyes, ocean blue, looked a little odd. The irises were large, not obscuring the whites around them, but certainly larger than irises should be, with correspondingly larger pupils as well. His torso looked like every other naked male torso she'd ever seen, his arms had proper proportions, muscular and toned.

Things got a little strange around the navel; starting there, dark turquoise scales made their way down his form, covering a long, singular trunk instead of two legs. His tail, as he himself had called it, was bent at roughly where the knees should be, but inward instead of outward, as knees would. The tail continued narrowing to the equivalency of ankles, where it split into two delicate looking fins. From the position of the fins and the way his tail bent, he would have to use a perpendicular stroke - up-and-down - instead of a lateral like a normal fish.

Hardly crediting what she was seeing, despite her analysis, she looked back up to his face. He was politely waiting for something, she decided, based on his expression; she just wasn't sure what.

"I suppose I'm the first neptune you've met. That's okay, you're the first land seal I've met." He looked her up and down, refocusing on her face. "You have the most beautiful eyes; they look just like this sand. I have to say, you're kind of strange-looking, for a seal. Being sand-colored makes sense, since you're on land all the time, but the long split fins on the split tail? No wonder you can't swim."

"Why do you speak English?"

"I speak what I speak."

"What do you mean 'land-seal'? You're half fish, half human, you really don't have much room calling me strange-looking, you know."

"I'm not a fish or a human, whatever that is. I'm a neptune. And you know: land-seal, like a seal, only you live on land." He flipped his hands in a shrug.

"I'm not a seal at all! I'm a person, a woman, a human being!"

"A human being what?"

That gave her pause. "Not being anything. Just _being_, I guess."

"Not being a seal?"

"No!" She frowned, remembering what he'd said. "You call yourself a neptune? Not a mermaid? Or merman, I suppose. You're male, right?"

He grinned wickedly. "I could show you if you like. You're female, right? A salacia?"

"I'm female."

"Okay, so you're a salacia-seal."

"And you're a merman." She grinned, understanding he was teasing her, even if she wasn't exactly sure she got the joke. He frowned down at his tail.

"I need to get back into the water. If I don't go too far down the beach, would you come with me? We can keep talking."

She shrugged, then waded back down the beach. He jackknifed his body, waited for a wave, and launched himself forward. When the water receded again, he drifted forward, lounging on the beach below the tide line so that every wave crashed over his tail. There was something really beautiful about that, she decided. She plopped down in the sand beside him.

"So. What's your name, neptune?"

"Llyr, it's a traditional name." There was something a little too quiet about the way he answered her before he looked up, smiling. "What's yours, human being?"

She grimaced. "Psyche. My mom was a mythology and folklore professor, specializing in Hellenistic literature. She thought it was not only perfectly okay, but positively _cute_ to name me Psyche. It's almost traditional to study myths and legends in my mom's family, but I really wish that Mom's field of focus had been something else if she were going to name me from her studies."

"Tell me about human being life."

She frowned. "We generally just say 'human'. 'Human being' is kind of an emphasis. What would you like to know? I'm a sales rep for a decent-sized advertising firm here in the city, I live alone, I deliberately moved a few hundred miles from my folks to be on the coast, and away from the Greek pantheon, and I enjoy sitting alone on the beach getting my clothes soaked in saltwater." She looked at him, grinning.

"Tell me about neptune life."

"I am the younger son of the current monarch of our city. I swim where I like, spend lots of time with my friends, away from my brother and court in general, and I like land-seal watching."

"You're a prince? And what's 'land-seal watching'?"

"I suppose, though I really don't think about it much. My brother is crown prince, and he has had the bulk of the responsibility since our father has fallen ill. Land-seal watching: observing humans, learning about them, interacting with them occasionally."

"I thought you said I was the first human you'd met."

"You are. I didn't know I liked land-seal watching until a few minutes ago." He was teasing her again. "I've spent a lot of my life learning about land-seals, though."

"You've studied humans, but you didn't know what we called ourselves?"

He shrugged. "You know about neptunes, but you didn't know what we called ourselves. I guess all of our information is out-dated."

She laughed.

"You know, this is so much more fun than the last date I had."

"Tell me," he said earnestly.

She looked at him curiously, then she shrugged and started telling him about her very dull last date. After that story, he told her more about himself, his brother, and his father. She listened, fascinated, and when she talked, he drank in her every word. The sun had set, and the tide had shifted before they finally decided to bid each other farewell, promising to meet up again tomorrow. She rose, watched him launch himself into the water, and climbed up the steep slope behind the beach. From out in the waves, he watched her climb the slope and disappear from sight.


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: **__For everyone who has read the first chapter: thank you. For those who have favorited or reviewed, a very special thank you!_

_I have no warnings to give about content (which feels really strange to me, as every other one of my stories to date have been M rated)._

_I also have no disclaimer to give._

_How about I just tell you to enjoy chapter two..._

_Jimli :D_

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**Chapter 2**

When he finally returned home, Adaro was waiting for him.

"Your _friends_," his brother started, saying the word 'friends' as though he were doubtful the term were accurate, "told me you hadn't shown up at your appointed meeting place. Aside from having made plans with them when you knew you were expected elsewhere, I know you were not actually with them today. Where exactly _have_ you been Llyr?"

He shrugged carelessly. "Just swimming. That a crime?"

"I indulge your whims, little brother, but I made it plain that I needed your presence today. The Keepers wished to meet with you, to explain to you once again the importance of your duties, especially considering how little you heed me. They are becoming impatient. If you do not attend them right now, I will be forced to keep you under constant watch."

Llyr scowled. "Whatever you say. I'll go see them, all right?" He moved to swim around his brother, but Adaro blocked him.

"I will escort you," he informed Llyr, a small smirk twisting his lips. Llyr scowled again.

"I said I was going," he muttered petulantly.

"I wish to discuss something with you," his brother replied innocently. "You know Father's health is failing, becoming worse every day. The Keepers are researching solutions and cures, but they don't express much hope. When the inevitable comes and I assume his place, your window of time to complete your royal duty shortens. There simply must be an heir born to you, before Father is called back to the sea."

"I've heard this before, many times, from every Keeper, tutor, teacher, and preacher I've ever been within 50 clicks of, including you and Father."

"The repetitiveness of the message should have been indicative of its importance, Llyr. You know how the royal line works, how staggering the inheritance insures peace."

"You're inheriting from Father," Llyr reminded him. It was a tired argument, one he well knew the reasoning behind, but he hoped it would distract Adaro enough to keep him from harping on Llyr's duties.

"I was always meant to assume, Llyr, it is _Father _who was never intended for the throne. The only fortuitous things about this situation are that our uncle's death came after our birth, and we were born twins. The Keepers had a hard enough time preserving the peace as it was, but they only managed to calm the uproar by pointing out the practicality of Father's ascension. This makes it all the more imperative that we now follow tradition to the letter, Llyr. Not only will you provide the line with a viable heir, but your nereid must be borne of a land-seal."

"That tradition hasn't been followed in generations!" Llyr snapped, tired of his brother's lecture and regretting having started this discussion with him.

"By going back to it, we show the people that the incident with Father and Uncle was isolated, a product of unfortunate circumstance, not a blatant disregard for our customs," his twin patiently responded as they stopped in front of the door to a large chamber Llyr knew to be the Keepers Hall.

Adaro smiled at him. "I know that being tied to a land-seal, even only long enough to sire an heir, doesn't appeal to your carefree lifestyle. I have long advocated the indulgence of your wants and desires. I have never been jealous of your freedoms, and I promise that once you have done this duty, I will allow you to return to whatever life you wish, _but this must be done_. If you sire an heir by a land-seal, as part of the age-old tradition, it will quiet the grumblings in the kingdom, and legitimize our dynasty once again."

Llyr nodded as he entered the chamber. Satisfied, Adaro gave him another smile before swimming back down the corridor.

He truly did understand, and in a way, he agreed with Adaro that this would reconnect the royal house to the people. Too many dark mutterings had been breezed around the kingdom about way proper succession had been looped around after their uncle Ceru's death. Those mutters had become rumors that Azure, Adaro and Llyr's father, had even had a hand in his brother Ceru's death, in an attempt to not only secure what was never to have been his, but to restart the singular succession of the throne from him, to Adaro, the already determined heir to Ceru, to Adaro's children and so forth.

Llyr thought it was nonsensical; whether by Adaro or Llyr, Azure's line was still on the throne, and Ceru and Azure were brothers - their father had not sat the throne, but his sister had. It was really the same line anyway, wasn't it? If anyone should feel slighted by the system, shouldn't it be Adaro's future nereids? He sighed to himself, musing over these things as the Keepers droned on about his duties. He knew the answer to those questions, too.

The back-and-forth system had been instated to keep the peace between royal siblings. Too many princes had died 'mysteriously' in the past; by requiring a prince to sire the heir instead of the king, it severely reduced the number of royal casualties. If the ruler's siblings died without heirs, the dynasty ended, even if the ruler himself had nereids. As Adaro had said, their birth had been quite timely: if Ceru had died before Adaro and Llyr had come, Azure would not have had the backing of the Keepers for his ascension to the throne. Instead, the throne would have passed to a branch of cousins, descended from some long-dead third child's line.

As for Adaro's future children, Llyr doubted they would ever exist. Tradition did not forbid the ruler to have children, but his brother was being extra cautious with regards to the temperament of the kingdom. In order to fully reassure the people that he was not trying to reestablish straight-line succession, he would most likely never have nereids.

That just left the last part, about reintroducing land-seal blood to the dynasty. It had been a custom long ago that every few generations, one of the royal family would mate with a land-seal and bring offspring to the sea. When possible, that offspring would be the next ruler. Traditionally, it was actually a princess of the royal family who would go to shore, find a mate, bear a child, and return to the sea with it.

Adaro had told Llyr once that if the situation had been different, less tense, the Keepers would have foregone the land-seal requirement, as it was a somewhat disused custom, and Llyr was a prince of the house. There wasn't any shame or emasculation to a prince doing it as opposed to a princess; it was just easier for a princess to return with a nereid in the womb than it was a prince to return with a borne child in tow. As things were, however, Adaro and the Keepers, as well as Azure, felt that they needed to fulfill as many old practices as they could to provide a solid, comforting basis for Adaro's rule.

Which actually brought Llyr back around to the day's activities. He hadn't been thinking about any of this when he'd gone to the surface; in fact, he'd been doing his best _not_ to think about it. The stretch of beach he'd gone to was usually quite lonely. Land-seals probably avoided it because of the harsh currents; they were rather pathetic swimmers, after all, not having a proper tail, or even proper fins. He grinned to himself.

He had been teasing the salacia-seal he'd met earlier, but the information he'd been given on land-seals from the Keepers was obviously woefully outdated. There were a lot of things she'd told him that he hadn't known, and he'd had her explain. No doubt the tradition falling out of practice had caused the great gap, especially considering that only the royal families had ever gone ashore for mating. Common neptunes didn't go the surface, much less the shore; it just wasn't done.

Llyr frowned. Adaro's words from earlier came back to him: _Where exactly _have_ you been Llyr? _He had dodged his brother's question more out of habit than anything else, but in light of Adaro's renewed push for him to mate a land-seal, he was glad he had. He had every intention of going to see Psyche again, but he wasn't sure he wanted Adaro or the Keepers to know he was in contact with a land-seal, especially one who knew he was a neptune.

Traditionally, when a neptune or salacia went to shore, the land-seals around them were kept in the depths about his or her true nature. It made it easier to return to the sea, especially with offspring. He had heard a few cautionary legends about those who had shared their heritage with their land-seal mates: trapped as a land-seal forever, turned to sea foam, killed ashore by other land-seals, or sometimes even by the mate. Llyr didn't know how accurate those old stories were, but he didn't want to experience any one of them firsthand, either.

When the Keepers were satisfied that they had successfully convinced their prince of the importance of finding a salacia-seal, and soon, they dismissed him. Llyr was sure that his brain was leaving a discolored trail of water behind him as it leaked out his ears. He went to his chambers, settled into the soft cool current passing through his room, and went to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: **__This chapter is a bit shorter than the previous two. It has a lemony scene in it, not graphic, so the T rating should remain intact._

_Please let me know what you think!_

_Thanks to the readers, followers, favoriters, and reviewers!_

_No disclaimer. (I'm really going to have to go back to my other fandom for that.)_

_Jimli ;P_

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**Chapter 3**

Psyche was at the beach first thing in the morning, waiting for Llyr. She'd had odd dreams about the rather handsome merman - neptune - last night. Llyr and the ocean. Llyr on the beach. Llyr kissing her….

She blushed. She had enjoyed _those_ dreams, but a few of the others had been disquieting. She supposed that being in contact with a real-life merman, and being called a 'land-seal', had stirred up every mermaid and selkie story she'd ever heard, most of which did not end well. Those stories had mixed in with her more enjoyable dreams to create fascinating but tragic scenarios in her sleeping mind.

She shook off her dark and dreary thoughts, scanning the horizon for Llyr.

"Looking for something, salacia-seal?"

Startled, she looked to her right, where his voice had come from. She grinned.

"Just scouting the sea for mermen," she replied. He sat up at the waist, scrutinizing the horizon.

"Don't see any," he informed her. "Would you settle for a neptune?" He flipped his tail. She laughed.

"Sure."

"You seemed a little moody at first. Something troubling you? Another bad date perhaps?"

She frowned. "How long have you been here?"

He looked away, a little embarrassed. "I actually watched you come down the slope," he admitted.

"Why didn't you show yourself?"

"I don't know. Just got lost in thought, I guess."

She nodded. "I was thinking about a bunch of old stories about mermaids and selkies. They always end unhappily." She chuckled, attempting to make light of her thoughts.

"I think I've heard those, too. The legends we have about land-seals don't end well, either."

They looked at each other, ocean eyes meeting sand ones.

"I was thinking about my dreams last night, too," she blurted, trying to break the hypnotic spell of his gorgeous, sea-colored orbs.

He blinked. "Yeah? What were you dreaming about?" He grasped at the conversation, trying to push aside the _other_ thoughts going through his mind, thoughts about her beautiful eyes, her unusual complexion…

She opened her mouth, then snapped it shut, blushing and turning away.

"I dreamt about you," she admitted.

He was nonplussed for a moment, then the answer broke over him. He grinned.

"Dreamt about me, huh?" He reached for her face, turning it towards him. "Would you like to know for real?" He leaned in, capturing her mouth in a soft kiss. She thought he tasted sweet and salty, and she responded readily, opening her mouth for more. They continued kissing deeper and deeper, heedless of everything else until she found herself on her back, his form on top of hers, the waves crashing over their lower bodies.

"Llyr," she murmured, pulling away from him slightly. He looked at her expectantly.

"Llyr, does this even work? I mean, where is…how do you…well, you know!" she finished lamely, irritated at her irrational embarrassment. He frowned for a moment, then smiled at her.

"You want to know where my male parts are?" he grinned and the rather innocuous phrasing seemed exponentially dirtier. She nodded.

"All male denizens of the sea have hideaway parts," he answered calmly, shifting from her slightly. Psyche looked downward to see he did indeed have compatible equipment just below the beginning of his fishy self.

"I would show you, but I'm a little too excited right now to pull it back," he said with a shrug.

"Don't care," she replied, grabbing at him and pulling him close again. They resumed their kissing and touching, exploring each other in hasty, needful movements.

"Please, please," she begged, wanting him completely. He obliged, burying himself in her body. They moved with one another, their rhythm accentuated by the pounding surf that continually washed over them. When they finally finished, he moved from her, then cuddled her to his body.

"As good as your dreams?" he teased.

"Better," she acknowledged. They lay in the sand, quietly holding each other, lost in their separate thoughts. Llyr sighed.

"I need to head down the beach again," he told her, kissing her crown. She nodded and watched as he used the next wave to head back into the surf. When he'd resettled below the tide line, she joined him. They sat comfortably on the sand, staring out over the water, letting the waves crash over them.

"What's it like? Living in the ocean, I mean," she asked him, laying her head against his shoulder. She felt him shrug.

"Living in the city isn't quite like living in the ocean," he replied slowly. "The way I understand things, living out in the ocean would be like land-seals living in the wilderness. Our city is full of neptunes and salacias, there are shops, we have homes and pets-"

She giggled. "Catfish and dogfish?"

He smiled, shaking his head. "Nah, I think those are freshwater. Eels, rays, lampreys, that sort of thing."

"Your gills, are they like in a fish, where if you quit moving, you suffocate?"

"Sort of, I guess."

"Do you sleep?"

"Yeah," he answered, looking at her curiously. "You want to know how I breathe while sleeping?"

She nodded. He laughed.

"Land-seals are really weird," he commented. "Our rooms in our houses are designed to make currents to flow the water past us so we don't have to constantly move. If you're out in the open depths, you have to find a natural current."

They settled back into silence, punctuated by the occasional, random question about seemingly unimportant things. The sun sank lower over the horizon, painting the water with fiery hues of yellows, oranges, and reds. Llyr sighed.

"I'd better go," he said softly. Psyche shivered as a breeze chilled her wet skin. "Will you be here tomorrow?"

She shook her head. "I have to work tomorrow. It'll be late before I could be here. I don't suppose you measure days when you can't see the sun, do you?"

"The sunlight comes through the water to a point, but mostly we measure time with the temperature of the currents."

"Well, we land-seals have five day work weeks, so I really won't be able to come back to the beach until the weekend. Six days from now."

Llyr closed his eyes in thought, briefly wondering how neptunes without required land-seal studies would ever have managed to go ashore. "All right, how about we meet then? I can tell you all about the only camping trip Adaro and I went on, and you can tell me about that frat party you went to."

She nodded, preparing to stand. He caught her hand and pulled her close for a tender kiss.

"And maybe we can do this again, too," he said softly, his romantic tone marred by the grin he couldn't hide.

She pulled away and stood. "Nah," she called over her shoulder. "I mean, it was okay, but I'm still looking for that merman."

They both laughed and then parted ways. Psyche turned back on top of the slope to catch sight of him one last time, wondering if she was falling for him.


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N: **__Chapter four for your viewing pleasure! Lemon juice in this one, you'll see what I mean._

_Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, favorited, and followed; I hope you enjoy this chapter as well!_

_Jimli :)_

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**Chapter 4**

Llyr swam home, the day's events rushing through his mind. He was already getting attached to her, he knew. Despite his friends' - and perhaps Adaro's - thoughts on his habits, he didn't float from salacia to salacia. Of course, the sheer novelty of Psyche being a land-seal may have had something to do with it initially, but it had little to do with how he felt now.

He reached the palace and was predictably intercepted by his brother's assistant. Llyr frowned; he was so distracted, he couldn't even remember the neptune's name.

"Prince Llyr. Your brother wishes to speak with you. He is in the Keeper's hall."

Llyr nodded and allowed the assistant to escort him there, no doubt under Adaro's instructions.

"Llyr," his brother greeted somewhat stiffly once he was ushered inside. "I wondered where you were; we have found something which may improve Father's health. The Keepers do not believe it is a permanent solution, but it may at least allow him to leave his chambers."

He nodded, relieved. Their father's illness wasn't devastating simply because of the severity of it, but also the suddenness with which it had hit him. Hearing that the Keepers' lore might hold some sort of solution was good news.

Hours later, after he had been brought up-to-date on what they had learned about the medicinal properties of sea cucumbers, Llyr went to his chambers to rest. Adaro came in just as Llyr was preparing to sleep.

"While it is not odd in the slightest for you to leave the palace, or even the city, this is the second day in a row that you have disappeared entirely, without your usual companions, and without their knowledge of your activities. I asked you before where you had been, and you dismissed the question. Are you going to tell me where you were today?"

Llyr shrugged. "I was swimming in some of the upper currents. They're rougher and more unpredictable than the deeper ones. I was just having some fun." He eyed Adaro with unusual shrewdness. "It's not like you to play nursemaid. Why the concern over my whereabouts lately?"

Adaro looked thoughtful for a moment. "To be blunt, Father's health is poor, even this solution will not change that. I fear his time is near, and that will cause a fresh stirring of unrest in the city." Catching the dark look on Llyr's face, he smiled. "I'm not harping once again on your duty, not directly. I am merely concerned that you may be involving yourself with a salacia, and that could cause a potential problem when the Keepers send you ashore."

Llyr could have laughed; Adaro was afraid he was disappearing to catch some salacia's tail? It was so close to the truth to be ironic! Llyr shook his head.

"I'm not going off to dally with a salacia, Adaro," he assured his brother, mostly truthfully. "I've been going to the surface. Not ashore," he qualified, "just the surface. I don't take my friends because they wouldn't go to the surface, not even for thrills. I don't tell them because they wouldn't come. We're not such good friends that we keep tabs on each other anyway. You know that."

Adaro nodded. Llyr remembered the day his twin had bluntly told him that Llyr's so-called friends cared more about his position than his person. Llyr had shrugged; he'd known that from the start, really.

Llyr smiled at his brother. "I won't disappear again for a few days or so, all right? Give you a break from fretting over your free-flowing brother."

"Agreed."

He watched his brother leave, briefly wondering if he should have told Adaro the complete truth. He fell asleep, his concerns pushed aside by memories of Psyche.

Psyche awoke abruptly. She rushed to her bathroom, checking herself frantically in the mirror. Once she saw only her own reflection, she relaxed, trying to recall why it had been so urgent to look. She shook her head helplessly. She'd been thinking about Llyr as she'd fallen asleep, but she couldn't remember what she'd just been dreaming about.

No matter. She went back to her room, noted the time with disgust, and slipped back under her covers. She promptly fell asleep again.

The next day at work, she was noting a distinct lack-of-sleep feeling that was affecting her concentration. Or maybe her concentration was more broken by thoughts of the handsome neptune she kept picturing.

It was a relief when she was finally headed home, though once she got there, she was struck by the overwhelming emptiness and loneliness of her apartment.

It was a struggle to get through the week, and when Saturday's dawn broke, Psyche was on the beach, a cooler of food and drink resting on the sand beside her, waiting for Llyr.

He washed in with a tidal wave, flipping his body around to face the sea. She picked up the cooler and made her way to him, setting her things high above the tide line before plopping down beside him. She'd had every intention of asking him about various things he'd mentioned casually to her, wanting better explanations, but she was struck by just how gorgeous he was instead. She reached for his mouth with hers.

Soon enough they were passionately touching, kissing, and caressing each other, not even pausing when he crossed her threshold. They climaxed within moments of one another and shared a long, lingering kiss before pulling away from each other.

They sat cuddled together for what seemed like both hours and mere moments before speaking.

"What's in the box?" Llyr asked finally.

"Picnic lunch and dinner, for two," she answered. She looked at him curiously. "So are all neptunes and salacias blue-green?"

"No, we're different. Land-seals all the same?"

She shook her head.

"Tell me about that college frat party, Psyche."

She laughed and launched into the story.

They spent the rest of the day together, talking, enjoying the food Psyche had brought, comfortable in each other's company. They moved up and down the beach, following the tide, and after their dinner, as the evening turned late, they made love again.

It was after that, as the sun sank towards the horizon, that Psyche realized she didn't want to watch him leave again.

"What now, Llyr? You go back to your home, I go back to mine, only ever seeing each other on weekends at the beach?" She didn't want to sound so heartbroken, but the whole situation was beginning to look bleak to her. Long, pregnant moments stretched out between them.

"It doesn't have to be like that," he answered slowly, still staring out at the horizon. Her first instinct was to demand he explain, but he seemed to be in the midst of an internal debate, so she patiently waited for him to continue. He turned to her, gazing intensely into her eyes before smiling.

"I could come home with you, if you like."

She was surprised at the intensity of her relief; she hadn't even really believed in love at first sight, but she couldn't deny that she was in love with Llyr.

"How?" was all she could manage to ask.

"We need to move above the tide line again."

She frowned, but nodded. He again waited for a wave, but this time, he launched himself up the beach with its force. He looked down at the receding water with a strange look on his face, and she suddenly wanted to tell him to forget whatever it was he had in mind.

"Llyr-"

"It's okay, Psyche," he interrupted, caressing her face. "I've decided I want you more than the sea."

She frowned at his cryptic remark, but her question was interrupted when he made a small noise of pain.

"Llyr!" she cried. "What's wrong?"

"I'm all right," he responded with a tight laugh. "I just didn't know how uncomfortable this would be."

"What would be?" she asked, but she saw the answer before he could explain.

Llyr's tail was drying out; the smooth, glistening scales curled into hard, brittle-looking pieces, falling away from the splitting flesh underneath. His skin lost its bluish hue, turning to a pale fleshy pink, and the webbing between his fingers receded. There were some slits in his torso near where his scales had begun that she had somehow never noticed before. She thought they were bleeding as she watched his change, then she realized that they had covered the gills he'd used underwater. Gills that were being knitted over with flesh and skin, making his torso seamless below his ribs. The light blue-green faded out of his hair, leaving it a silvery white. His oversized irises and pupils shrank, though they retained their ocean hue. A snowy drift of hair grew around his male parts, filling in the place where his newly split flesh now joined his torso. He popped the joints of his new knees and ankles, snapping them into human positions, and the odd writhing under his skin suggested that everything had reknitted so those joints now only swung in one direction.

The pain cleared out of his eyes, and he smiled, despite the clammy film of sweat on his body.

"There. One new land-seal," he joked. He started gathering as many of the scales out of the sand as he could.

"If you get wet, do you change back, or is this permanent?"

"No to both. I can change back, that's why I'm keeping these: in case I ever need to." He looked at the slightly hurt look on her face and smiled at her.

"I only mean in some sort of emergency, like if you get sucked out by the riptides trying to see mermen again," he teased. "Then, I just take some of these and some blood, smear the mess over these," indicating his new legs, "and instant rescue!"

She giggled.

"Do you have some way we can carry these?" he asked more seriously. She grabbed her beach tote, and he dumped the scales inside. They scrounged around for a few more moments before deciding they had salvaged as many as possible. Llyr unsteadily stood with Psyche's assistance, and they made their way towards the steep slope.

"Wait," she said, rummaging in her tote. She pulled out a large beach towel. "Here, wrap this around your waist."

He obediently took the towel and tied it around his hips.

"Looks good, right?"

"Very stylish," she agreed as they made their way up the slope towards her waiting car.


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N: **__Chapter five. Hate me if you must. _

_No disclaimers, no warnings._

_Enjoy! (I hope...)_

_Jimli :)_

* * *

**Chapter 5**

Llyr walked into the store, holding his daughter's hand and carrying his eight-month-old son in his harness. He was trying to find a nice anniversary present for Psyche. They'd been married five happy years now, and he wanted to find a fitting gift.

"Daddy! How about one of those?" Shell, his four-year-old daughter, asked, pointing at a large dollhouse. He chuckled.

"Are you sure Mommy wants one? Or maybe is it you who does?"

The little girl frowned, thinking. "Mommy," she decided. He laughed, shaking his head. Shell was decisive, like her mother, and had a slightly self-gratifying nature, not unlike he had been. She was the image of her mother, with a small tell-tale exception: her coppery hair, similar to Psyche's, had odd, pinkish undertones. That pink color had been definitive at birth, inspiring Llyr to name her Shell. His wife had looked at him curiously when she'd seen her pink-haired daughter, but Llyr knew what it meant: she could return to the sea, if ever she desired, much like the sleeping boy strapped to his chest. He looked very like Llyr had before he had left the sea, with faint blue-green tinting to his pale hair, though Llirán's eyes were an ice-blue, like his grandfather Azure's.

"Daddy!" the little girl said plaintively. "Are we going to get Mommy that?"

Llyr shook his head. "No, Shell. I'm not sure Mommy wants it as much as you do. You wouldn't want it to sit in Mommy and Daddy's room all the time, would you? You wouldn't get to play with it much like that."

She shook her head, her curly pigtails slapping around her heart-shaped face.

"Okay, so how about we find something that Mommy will love?"

The girl nodded.

It took them a few hours, two stops to the bathroom, and ice cream for all three of them before they found it: a sand-colored polished rock carved in the shape of a seal and dangling from a gold chain. Llyr paid the ticket price without hesitation and had it gift-wrapped.

They were walking towards the entrance when a voice called out.

"Llyr? Prince Llyr?"

Llyr looked around automatically and caught sight of a tanned, well-built man striding towards them with relief and delight spread over his strong features.

Llyr gently tugged on Shell's hand to pull her behind his body discreetly and looped an arm around his son. Llirán picked up on his father's guarded tenseness and started whimpering slightly. The former neptune ran his hand up and down the little one's back, trying to soothe his offspring.

"Seastars! I've found you! The king was beginning to worry that you'd gone further ashore! It is good to see that you have done what was tasked you, but why have you not yet returned? Your brother is most anxious about you, as well as the lack of an heir."

Llyr grimaced sourly. "Nice to know my well-being comes before my duty," he said sardonically. "But Adaro and my father can set their worries aside. I'm fine."

"Your father?" the man asked, clearly puzzled.

"Yeah, Azure, the king you were talking about."

"Then, you don't know that your brother sits the throne?"

"Why would…" he started, but the answer hit him hard: there was really only one reason Adaro would have taken the throne.

"My father's dead?"

"Claimed by the sea not six or seven tide-cycles after you disappeared," the man confirmed sadly. "I am sorry, my prince."

Llyr nodded numbly.

"You can see why the king has been concerned, then?"

Llyr nodded again. The city must be in even worse turmoil now than when he'd left, with his father gone, and Adaro sitting heirless on the throne. No doubt he had been arguing with the Keepers about having children or perhaps abdicating in favor of a different line. Llyr felt incredibly selfish standing there, the solution to his city's problems clutched in his arms. The gift-wrapped box with Psyche's necklace was incredibly heavy.

"Yes. I see. Tell Adaro where I am, and that I have heirs. Tell him I will return to the sea. I…I need a day to take care of something first."

The man's expression cleared. "Of course! I shall go at once! You do have the means to return with them?"

Llyr nodded, distracted by the thought of what he was doing, what he had to do. After a somewhat abrupt good-bye, the man left them. Shell looked up at her father.

"Daddy?"

He smiled at her. "Come on, sweetheart. We need to go home and talk to Mommy."

"Are we going to give her her present?"

"Yeah, sweetie. I hope she loves it."

* * *

"Oh, Llyr! It's perfect!" Psyche exclaimed.

"We helped, Mommy!" Shell interjected.

"Of course you did! And it is really beautiful!"

"Daddy wanted to get you a dollhouse, the pretty princess castle!" the little girl told her mother, giggling.

"Well, I'm glad you talked him out of that. What else did you guys do today?"

"Daddy talked to a friend of his," Shell informed her.

Psyche looked at Llyr curiously. His warm smile at his daughter's antics faded.

"We need to talk after the kids go to bed," he said gently.

Several hours later, long after Shell and Llirán were asleep, and Psyche had learned far more about her husband than she had known before, she was still reeling over everything he'd told her.

"But why? Why do all this? Why go back? Why _everything_?" she cried.

"I don't know, I just fell for you. I wasn't really thinking about anything else, just you. Us."

"And what are you thinking about now?" she shot back.

He winced, looking away from his wife. "I'm trying to do the right thing. I admit, I was self-centered, and usually only concerned with pleasing myself. You taught me different. Being with you, raising our children, I know it's not about what I want. There are greater responsibilities given to us. I'm sorry, Psyche. Sorrier than I ever even knew anyone could be. I'm sorry I have to leave you, sorry I have to return to the sea, sorry I have to take our children. I probably should be sorry I started this mess, but somehow, I can't be. Our life together has been too meaningful and precious for that."

"What about our new addition?" she asked, anger still tingeing her voice as she pointed at her belly.

"I'm sorry that one won't know its father, but at least I know it'll have the better parent." He leaned to kiss her, afraid she'd pull away. She nearly did, but met her lips to his instead. After a sad, lingering kiss, he got up and found the bag with his scales still in it.

"We'll leave in the morning, with the dawn tide," he told her, dumping the scales into a much smaller bag. He walked out of their room, and she rolled onto her side and cried herself to sleep.

She woke, determined to go with them; they were her family, her husband and children. If she and Llyr hadn't been so upset last night, one of them would have surely thought of it. She grabbed a sheathe dress and some sandals and ran to her children's room.

"Llyr! Llyr!" she stopped in her tracks, her face drained of color. It was long past dawn. Knowing it was hopeless, she grabbed her keys and raced to the beach. She scrambled down the slope, but knew they were long gone, returned to the sea.


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N: **__For all those who hated me and/or Llyr, here is the next chapter, which may alleviate your issues._

_No warnings, no disclaimer._

_Enjoy! Jimli :)_

* * *

**Chapter 6**

Almost every day after, she trekked to the beach, hoping against hope that they might be there. She went home, disappointed day after day. After several weeks had passed, her belly was round with Llyr's last child, another boy, she'd learned, and she was cleaning out the nursery in preparation. She ignored the tears that trailed down her cheeks as she put away the things she wouldn't need, mostly her daughter's things. She'd be nearly five now, Psyche remembered with a pang.

That miserable task done, she went back into the room she'd shared with Llyr. She'd slept in here constantly after he'd left, but then had begun sleeping on the couch instead. Dreams of Llyr, their children, and the ocean had plagued her while she'd been in their bed, and she could only seem to sleep with any restfulness on the couch. That really had to change, so she decided to clear the room of Llyr.

She washed everything, despite the washings it may have already had, aired out the room, and packed away things that had been his. She found her beach tote under the edge of the dresser, forgotten since Llyr had taken his scales out of it. She reached inside to grab the miscellaneous items that were no doubt in the bottom and found something hard. Psyche pulled back her hand and looked inside the bag. _There were some scales left inside._

"Llyr," she breathed, hope filling her for the first time in months. She grabbed a cup off the table near the bed and started fishing scales out of the bag. There weren't many, just enough to fill the cup, really, but she hoped it was enough.

She remembered what Llyr had said about changing back, but a small voice of reason gave her pause. Llyr had been a neptune to begin with, so using his method would be more like reverting: that's even how he had talked about it, 'returning to the sea'. On the other hand, Shell and Llrián weren't neptunes, at least, not wholly, and not born so. If Llyr had used the same method for them, there stood a chance it would work for her. The other thing that concerned her was how well she knew Llyr.

Llyr had a tendency, especially at the beginning of their relationship, to simplify things, even to the point of oversimplification. He had said combining blood and his scales and smearing the mix over his legs would change them back into a tail. Did it reverse the entire process? Was it really as simple as that, or were there other steps that he hadn't thought were important enough to mention?

She shook her head. It all came down to one thing, really: was she going to follow his instructions to try to get back her husband and family, or was she unwilling to chance what would happen to her and the baby inside her?

She took the cup downstairs and found a sharp knife before heading to the beach.

She stopped just above the tide line, stripped off her shoes and dress, and sent out a prayer before slicing down each leg with the knife. The cuts were shallow, but painful, and blood welled up quickly. Taking the scales, she caught the blood in her cupped hand and mixed the scales into it.

The scales started absorbing the blood, hydrating, and she splattered the mess onto her bleeding thighs, spreading it around. She kept working, trying to ration out the scales. When she was nearly finished, she felt a strange sensation, like the squeeze of tight clothing. Psyche looked down, seeing the scales spread and overlap into regular patterns, creeping up her thighs and butt to pause just above her hips and below her ribs.

Her knees gave way, and she tumbled gracelessly to the beach, her legs folding. Bones cracked painfully, flesh pinched, squished, and crawled. She felt a stitch in her side, like she'd been running for far too long. She reached down, feeling the split tissue above the new scales, and the tender, moist gills inside.

The neat, new scales were joining the mess smeared on her calves. Her ankles turned to each side to the breaking point, then they snapped painfully. A sharp sensation raced through her feet before they went almost numb. Had it been this awful for Llyr?

Her hands felt odd, her fingers sticky, and when she looked, new webbing had grown between the digits. Locks of her hair tumbled around her exposed, pregnancy-swollen breasts, and she picked one tendril up curiously. Her once copper colored hair was now a deep fuchsia with copper tones, and her pale, peachy skin now had a delicate pink tint. Not a fleshy, human pink, but a flowery pink.

She felt a little weak, and the baby was kicking inside her now half-scaled abdomen, but all the pain and crawling sensations were finally gone. She wriggled, trying to get a feel for her new muscle structure, then crawled towards the ocean. She had always felt a pull towards the ocean, and now both her aching heart and her new physical form increased that draw exponentially. Psyche dove into the waves, striving to learn to swim, to reach her family.

Her body adapted quicker than her mind did: gills pulling oxygen into her system, filmy lids covering her eyes, little flaps covering her ear canals while actually increasing her sensation of sound and vibration. After blinking a few times, her eyes adjusted to the gloom, making the water seem as well lit as the beach had been. She let the current guide her in the direction she had seen Llyr go after their first encounter, hoping she could find his city kingdom on the vastness of the sea floor.

Psyche knew it couldn't be too far away. Despite the implausibility of an underwater city being undetected so close to the shore, Llyr had easily swum back and forth between their beach and his city in a day. Soon enough, she did see something in the distance, and she aimed for it like a homing pigeon. Between her pregnancy, her transformation, and her long swim, her energy was quickly depleting; however, as she came closer to the city, a group of neptunes spotted her.

"Hey! Hey, salacia! Are you all right?" one of them asked, concern in his voice.

She shook her head, too tired to answer him. "Llyr? Please, do you know where Llyr is?"

"Llyr? Prince Llyr?" another voice asked, but Psyche was falling, slipping away. _Llyr…_


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/N: **__Wow, chapter seven already! This is the penultimate chapter, that's right, only one more left!_

_As always, I love hearing from you, the readers! Thanks to all who so much as sneeze at this story!_

_No warnings._

**_Claimer: I OWN IT! I OWN IT ALL! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!_**

_Jimli XD_

* * *

**Chapter 7**

Psyche awoke to feeling of cool water flowing around her. At first, her confused mind thought she'd fallen asleep in the tide, and the vision of Llyr's face before her eyes actually strengthened that idea. _Did I fall asleep and dream about being married to Llyr?_ She turned away, blushing at herself before her brain finally caught up to her senses. She jerked, looking around at her surroundings. She was inside a blue and green lit carved room and the feeling of flowing water was all around her body. She looked back at Llyr, who had the same neptune-coloring he'd had when they had first met. She glanced at herself, a scaly tail stretching down from her pregnant belly.

"How did this happen, Psyche?" Llyr asked, concern bordering on panic in his voice. Her disorientation faded, and she frowned, a little hurt and angry at his reaction.

"That's the first thing you ask? In that panicky tone? 'How did this happen'?"

He shook his head. "I don't mean it like that, I just-"

"There were some of your scales in the bottom of the tote. I remembered what you'd said about how to return to the sea. I couldn't bear not trying. I missed you. I missed Shell and Llirán. I didn't want to be without my family anymore, not when I could try."

"Psyche," he said, cuddling her, "we've missed you, too, but you shouldn't have done this. I left the way I did so you wouldn't do this."

Tears came from her eyes, mingling with the sea water all around her.

"Why? Do you not want me anymore?"

"No!" he exclaimed. "No, Psyche, it's just that you're a land-seal. Land-seals aren't meant to come to the sea this way. It doesn't work."

"But it does! Look!"

Llyr looked at his wife. She made a beautiful salacia with her dark pink hair and tail. Her eyes were still the same soft sand color, something rare, perhaps even unique in the sea. He felt all the longing and desire he'd suppressed since leaving her hit him, but he couldn't even bring himself to kiss her.

"Psyche, you don't understand," he started again, "the effects won't last. Depending on how many scales there were, how much blood was used, a lot of other factors, you may only have days before you turn back into a land-seal."

She looked horrified, and his heart thumped painfully in his chest. Her horror cleared, replaced by an achingly familiar look of determination.

"I don't care," she said softly. "Being alone was killing me anyway. I'll live long enough to birth our little boy, and then he can be here with his father and siblings, too." She paused.

"Llyr, about the baby. Is he already a neptune, or will you need to change him?" She caressed her belly as the little one started kicking her.

"The histories where princesses have returned to the sea gravid never mention the need for changing the baby. I'm sure the Keepers could do an examination of you and him to be certain."

She nodded. "See? Then everything will be okay."

Llyr started shaking his head, but she smiled at him, cupping his face.

"I really couldn't bear it, Llyr. If you'd been dead, or even if you'd disappeared, I probably could have, but knowing you and our children were here, alive? 'So close and yet, so far' was killing me."

He nodded. He'd felt sort of the same, but he'd at least had Shell and Llirán, as well as Adaro. Psyche had no one, really. Her parents were distant, both physically and emotionally, and she'd been an only child. The family she'd created with Llyr was all she had, and he'd left, taking almost all of that family with him.

"All right, Psyche." He smiled. "I know two little nereids who are eager to see you, as well as my brother, Adaro."

They found Shell and Llirán with Adaro, and Psyche was quite surprised at all three of them. Shell's hair had become a bright, vivid pink, with only the faintest hints of its coppery color, although her tail was coppery. She swam at her mother ferociously.

"Mommy!" she cried, crushing herself against Psyche's breasts and throwing her arms around her neck. "We missed you Mommy! Daddy said you couldn't return to the sea with us! Can you now?"

"Yeah, sweetie, I'll stay as long as I can."

The neptune who could only be Adaro had Llirán's hand, guiding him as he swam clumsily towards his mother. She scooped her son into her arms.

"Oh, you're so big!" she told him, listening to his happy noises. "And you look just like your daddy!" She looked at the adult neptune, feeling a little nervous.

"I am Adaro. You must be the lovely land-seal my brother insists on telling us about," he said, smiling.

"You and Llyr look so alike," she commented. "From what he described, I guess I expected you to look old and dreadfully serious."

He laughed. "I won't repeat what he's told everyone about you. Just don't be surprised at anyone's reactions to you." He cocked his head, gazing at her. "Your eyes are very lovely, just as captivating as Llyr described. Is that truly what sand looks like on the beach?"

She blushed. "I doubt it. He has a dreadful habit of exaggerating or downplaying things."

"Yes, he never stays in-current, does he?" Adaro agreed, smiling. "I'm sure you're still exhausted, swimming all this way in your condition, and no doubt you'd like to catch up with your nereids. Llyr, might I speak with you a moment?"

Llyr nodded and followed his brother down the corridor.

"She intends to stay?" Adaro asked as soon as they were safely out of earshot. "You did tell her that she will die?" Llyr was touched by the amount of concern in his brother's tone.

"I did. She said she wanted to birth our third child, let him stay here. If she dies, she dies. She said she missed us too much."

Adaro looked at his twin shrewdly. "You intend to take her back ashore before she is taken by the sea."

"I'm not going to let her die," Llyr replied softly. "I can't. I'm just not selfish enough to keep her here."

His brother nodded. "The Keepers who examined her believe she has no more than a tide-cycle, enough time to bear your neptune, I suppose. How are you going to take her back, and what are you going to do about the baby?"

Llyr sighed. "I don't know. I thought I'd talk to the Keepers; there is an ocean's worth of land-seal lore, there might be a way to make her forget. They'll be examining her anyway; she asked about the need to change the baby."

"Is that going to be necessary?"

"Not from everything the Keepers always told me," Llyr replied, shaking his head.

Adaro nodded. "You've been in land-seal studies since we were young. I think only Elder Keepers know more than you do."

"I was still woefully uninformed," Llyr chuckled softly. "I'll watch for any signs: trouble breathing, scales peeling away, tail splitting."

"Perhaps her coloring changing as well," Adaro commented. "I can only assume that she was not colored like that as a land-seal, not based on everything you said about her."

Llyr frowned. "No. Odd, isn't it? The stories always said that a land-seal who came to sea still looked like a land-seal. That's how you could tell if a child could return to the sea with its neptune parent, by its coloring. Psyche, though…" he trailed off, looking at his brother.

Adaro shook his head. "I'm not sure. Perhaps the Keepers can answer that as well."

Psyche was introduced to the kingdom formally as Llyr's princess, and a three-day celebration was given in her honor. Out of respect for her pregnancy, however, she was then given her privacy, and she spent her time with her children - nereids - and Llyr.

Llyr spent the next few weeks floating between spending time with Psyche and his offspring and doing research with the Keepers. Nothing could be found to make Psyche's transformation permanent, and very little on wiping her memories seemed promising. They also found no reason for the completeness of her alteration. Not even the most dark-depthish stories could they find land-seals who turned completely neptune.

"Here is the only thing I could find, my prince," one venerable old salacia said, pointing to an old seaweed scroll. "A princess who brought back not only an offspring when she returned to the sea, but her land-seal husband. His family had handed down an old tale about one of his grandmother's grandmothers being 'selkie', and he wanted to see if the princess's city looked like the one in her story. He had figured out what she was because of his ancestor's tale. It says that he became prince of the kingdom, but it never mentions the sea taking him."

Llyr frowned as he examined it. "It doesn't mention if he looked fully neptune, though. I'm not sure how practical this is, but it is interesting." He sighed. "Let's keep looking tomorrow, okay? I'm tired, and I have a beautiful princess waiting in my rooms." He grinned at the Elder Keeper, who shook her head.

"Youth," she muttered, putting the scrolls away.


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N: **__For some inexplicable reason, I am experiencing some issues (I said that British, by the way) with my account. Hopefully, this will upload like it's supposed to._

_Again, no warnings of any kind, and nothing to disclaim._

_Please, please let me know what you all think, especially anyone who has expressed doubts, or complaints, even if only to yourself. I truly enjoy the feedback._

_Thanks to everyone for reading, following, favoriting, reviewing, and PMing!_

_Without further ado, please enjoy!_

_Jimli :)_

* * *

**Chapter 8**

Almost a month after Psyche had followed Llyr into the sea, she woke feeling a warmth in their sleep current. She frowned, then cried out as pain cramped her abdomen.

Llyr woke with her first cries, and he knew that he had to rush her to the surface. "Come on, Psyche, we need to go!"

She nodded, allowing him to push her ahead of him as he swam from the cavern. Wave after wave of cramping pains hit her; at the worst ones, Llyr would pause, trying to keep her calm and in as little discomfort as possible. They ran into the Elder Keeper who had found the text about the 'selkie' land-seal. She scowled at him.

"What's the matter with you, my prince? Get the princess to the Keeper's Hall before she pushes your neptune out in the corridor!"

Llyr blinked. "Birthing? She's birthing?" he asked in equal parts confusion and relief.

"Yes, yes, what did you think?" she answered, distracted by the younger female's condition. Llyr turned and headed towards the Keeper's Hall with Psyche.

In a few hours' time, Llyr was holding his new nereid, a neptune with his mother's sand-colored eyes.

"What are you naming him?" Adaro asked, looking between Llyr and his new nephew.

"Sand," Llyr replied, smiling at his son.

"How is Psyche?" his brother asked. Llyr shrugged, his brows knitted.

"The Keepers say she's fine. She needs rest."

"Any signs yet?"

"No, not yet."

"My prince!" a young voice called from the corridor. A half-grown neptune swam in, half-tangled in a seaweed scroll. He stopped mid-stroke when he saw Adaro, his eyes growing wide.

"My king, I'm so sorry, I-"

"Please, it's fine," Adaro said smiling at the nervous neptune. "What is it that brings you in such a hurry?"

"My prince, I found something in the records!" he exclaimed, holding up the coiled lengths of the scroll. "It's a documentation of court cases brought before the kings and the Keepers. See, I was supposed to be copying them, because some of-"

"Yes, I get it," Llyr said. "Why did you want to talk to me about it?"

"Well, one of the cases was a petition from a neptune named," he paused, referencing the scroll wrapped around his chest, "Wehran. He had gone ashore, met a land-seal, and erm, well, he…"

"Coupled with her?" Adaro supplied.

The neptune nodded. "She became pregnant, and he was going to return to the sea with her and the child. The Keepers told him that he couldn't, because she would be taken by the sea, and the king at the time," he looked at his right shoulder, crossing his eyes to read the upside-down script, "Agwe, said he couldn't bring the child because he wasn't from the royal family, and tradition only allowed for the royal dynasty to mate with land-seals. Wehran wasn't punished, but he also wasn't allowed to go back ashore, and the case was closed." He looked between Adaro and Llyr excitedly, clearly expecting praise for his discovery. The brothers looked at each other, then back to the young neptune.

"So what is it exactly that I should be understanding from this?" Llyr asked patiently.

"There's a cross-reference!" he answered ecstatically, shoving both his left shoulder and a sheaf of pressed sheets at Llyr. "The cross-references all have to be transcribed, too, so that any related docu-"

"Of course," Adaro cut in smoothly, "but what does the cross-reference say?"

"Nothing," Llyr answered wonderingly, looking up at his brother. He pushed the sheets at Adaro. They were colored drawings of a salacia-seal who had reddish hair, sand-colored eyes, and a remarkable resemblance to Psyche.

"How old is this scroll?" Adaro asked.

"Agwe had just assumed the throne."

"Agwe. The last king of the previous dynasty?"

The neptune nodded. "Who sat the throne without siblings and gave it to his cousin Cinei's line. Queen Cinei, your great-aunt, genesis of your dynasty."

"And these drawings?" Llyr asked.

"Well, that mark at the bottom indicates they were given as evidence in the trial, so either Wehran drew them, or someone presenting the case to the Keepers."

"The case was closed, you said, meaning nothing more was done?"

"Yeah, and no one found out what happened to the salacia-seal or her offspring!"

Llyr cuddled the nereid in his arms a little closer and went into the room where Psyche was resting. "Psyche? Hey, don't you want to meet Sand?"

She opened her eyes, smiling at the two of them before taking the small neptune into her arms. She giggled.

"It's kind of strange holding a baby merman," she teased.

"It gets stranger holding a big one, so I'm told," Llyr grinned. He sobered quickly, handing the drawings to her. She frowned.

"What are these? They look sort of like me, or possibly my great-grandmother. I never met her, but my grandmother told me I looked just like her. Did you draw them before I came down here?"

He shook his head. "No, they're from an old court case brought before the Keepers. A non-royal went ashore and impregnated this salacia-seal," he pointed to the drawings, "but was kept from bringing her or the baby to the sea."

"That seems harsh."

Llyr nodded almost absently before continuing. "Your family doesn't live in the city where we did."

She frowned. "No. My mom had terrible dreams about the ocean; she was afraid of it, so she moved away from it after high school, going to college in the center of the country. She met my father there and settled in. I moved here to see the ocean, and I fell in love with it. My mother's fear of the ocean is part of the reason my parents never visited me, even when their grandchildren were born." She looked at Llyr. "What is this all about, Llyr?"

"If your family comes from the sea, you know you can return if you bear neptune coloring."

She nodded. "You explained that when Shell was born."

"What do you know about your grandmother's father?"

"Nothing. Grandma was raised by her mom. I guess her dad just disappeared."

"Did you grandmother dream of the ocean, too?" Llyr asked.

Psyche shrugged. "I don't know. I know that she loved mythology, like my mom. She had all kinds of books about Irish and Welsh myths. Mom told me once that mythology was a family tradition."

"I agree: I think your great-grandfather must have been Wehran, the neptune who drew these."

Psyche blinked. "My mother was always so disappointed that I went into business instead of studying mythology, yet she was the one who avoided the sea. I never understood her fear."

Llyr grinned. "I guess you're more into mythology than she thought, being married to a merman."

"Neptune," Psyche corrected, laughing. "They're much better looking." She looked back down at the drawings. "Do you really think my great-grandfather was a neptune? That my grandmother was a salacia?"

"Your grandmother was a land-seal: she was born ashore and never came to sea. There isn't any way to know if she could have returned to the sea. Maybe that's why your mother is afraid of the sea, maybe deep down she knows she can't return to the sea."

"I don't think anyone was deliberately hiding all of this, though," Psyche said.

"Llyr," she frowned, "I didn't look strange."

"Not as much as Shell or Llirán, no, but the neptune blood was diluted by the time it got to you, and even when a child has a neptune parent, sometimes it can't return to the sea. There are a lot of factors, including the fact that Wehran was a commoner. The Keepers believe that since land-seal blood has been introduced into the royal lines periodically, royals are more likely to produce offspring that can return to the sea."

"That seems strangely backwards."

"Maybe, but it also seems true. However it all works, one thing _is_ true: land-seals who come to the sea never look fully neptune; they always keep land-seal coloring. Not you, Psyche. You changed. You didn't _come_ to the sea, you _returned_ to the sea."

She reached up and gave him a kiss as Adaro came into the room cradling Llrián with Shell swimming in his wake.

Shell rushed up, squeezing close beside her mother, intently watching the new neptune in Psyche's arms. Llyr reached for his older son, lowering him towards his baby brother. Psyche smiled up at her prince.

"No, Llyr, I returned to my family; the sea was just a perk."

None-the-less, Llyr kept a careful eye on his belovéd wife, watching for any sign that she wasn't truly a salacia. It wasn't until a year later, when the venerable Elder Keeper pointed out that no land-seal had ever lasted more than a few tide-cycles that he relaxed.

"Youth in love," she muttered, returning to her records.


End file.
